Church group creates something warm for people in need

CARTHAGE (AP) — Marlys Johnson pins together the three layers of a quilt, carefully smoothing the fabric as she works.

“There’s all kinds of material, all different colors. Some is so pretty you just hate to part with it,” Johnson said. “Some of it is not quite pretty. Even if it’s not pretty, at least it’s warm.”

Not far away, Haletta Folkerts’ sewing machine makes a steady hum as another quilt moves under the needle, and in a nearby storage room, Clarine Hurt sorts donated fabric.

“We sort it into the boxes. This way we can take this box, and they have all the same material for the same quilt, not wool, silk and everything else together,” Hurt said.

The tasks, along with others, make up an assembly line of sorts, turning out a stream of quilts, no two alike, from Immanuel Lutheran Church near Carthage.

The women in the church’s Activity Group turn quilting into a mission — and a ministry. Their nimble fingers and flashing needles against a backdrop of quiet conversation provide quilts sent around the world through Lutheran World Relief and for local families in need.

“It’s quite a process that their hands are busy at,” Pastor Kurt Hoover said. “What I try to do is remind them of the theme of God’s work, our hands. Their hands are doing God’s work in the midst of their fellowship.”

LWR challenged churches nationwide to donate 500,000 quilts in 2013 after supplying 412,710 quilts last year along with 522,288 school, personal care and baby care kits to people in need in 23 countries.

Immanuel provided 366 quilts, 37 baby care kits, 67 school kits and 24 personal care kits to a recent “ingathering” of area Lutheran churches and already has boxes filled with more put together every Thursday morning.

“Everybody has their particular job they like to do,” said Johnson, one of the youngest and newest members of the group, recruited soon after she retired in 1996. “They knew I liked to sew.”

‘Just ask for what you need’

The mission work dates to the aftermath of World War II, with generations of Immanuel members giving of their time at church and at home.

“We have this table full of people with material and patterns. They mark around the cardboard or plastic pattern, then they cut them out, put them in a pile and eventually they’re sorted by size. Somebody takes them home to sew them into tops,” Johnson said. “We encourage 60-by-80 inches for the size of the quilt tops. Sometimes they’re a little bigger. Sometimes a little less.”

Hurt may spend six hours a day at home working on the quilts.

“I will bring material home. I’ll sort that. If it’s big pieces, I sew them together for the backing,” said Hurt, who also organizes the storage room, keeping supplies in neatly labeled tubs. “I can’t let that box sit there. I want to get it done. It’s my hobby.”

Folkerts also works on quilts at home but admits she’s not as fast as Johnson.

“I keep track of how many I do each month. In October, I did 29. I wanted to get one a day, but I didn’t quite make it,” Johnson said.

“That’s close enough,” Folkerts said.

Most of the supplies – from fabric and crochet thread used to tack the quilts to towels and notebooks – are donated or picked up at auctions and garage sales.

“Just ask for what you need, and God provides,” Hurt said. “I was going to make baby gowns, and I just asked for bias tape. You can’t imagine the bias tape I got. People have got it and are happy to give it to somebody who uses it for something special like this.”

The ongoing effort ties into the group’s desire to be helpful and see things being used.

“We’re making use of materials that otherwise would be put into landfills, and we’re also providing warm blankets for use of people when they really need them,” Johnson said. “If they’ve been in a hurricane, a war or the family has to relocate in a hurry without any possessions, they need something. We’re really happy to provide help to anybody that needs it.”

What they do inspires a spirit of giving that reaches beyond the group, with Hurt providing just one example.

When Hurt had some pretty children’s material on hand, she asked her granddaughter if she’d like a quilt.

“She said ‘no, Grandma. I’d rather you make it for the people that need them.’ That gives you the thought of doing it,” Hurt said.